Black Women Dominate the News Cycle- Robin, Whoopi, Sherri and Star

Since this blog is about portrayals of African American women in popular culture, I hope it wasn't lost on everyone that yesterday Black women were the center (or about center) of the news cycle .

Robin Roberts who seems like a truly decent soul announced that she has breast cancer. On June 2, 2007, we discussed Black women and health on our podcast the Black Women's Round Table on the show called Are Black Women One Ham Hock away from a Heart Attack?(One of Our Best Ever) Please don't believe the hype. Black women are not invincible. "Testing is particularly important for black women, many of whom face a particularly virulent strain of breast cancer" (Source)Also, please remember that the number one killer of Black women is heart disease and black women have the highest mortality rate of any group.

Poor Star Jones ( yes, I feel bad for her. Deal with it!), she finally admitted to the obvious; she had gastric bypass surgery. We can all debate why she has gotten such hateration over the years. Some of it was self-inflicted, but I can't help thinking that the vitriol would not have been quite so strong if she wasn't a sister.

Speaking of Star Jones, Barbara Walters MIGHT be about to appoint not one, but TWO Black women as new cohosts of The View. Eurweb is saying that ABC is telling folks to hold the champagne, so this might change by tomorrow's announcement. I know lots of folk have issues with Sherri Shepard because she went back to her cheating husband and even more have problems with Whoopi, but I know many people didn't think it was possible for them to fill BOTH of the empty slots on the show with Black women. This fall ought to be fun. One way or another. We'll see what happens later today at the announcement.